Announcing the 2025 Federal 100

For more than 30 years, the Federal 100 awards have sought out and spotlit the people in government, industry and academia who have dedicated themselves to producing outstanding work on behalf of the American public in the last year. This cohort has proven no exception.

Our all-volunteer group of judges poured through the hundreds of nominations that were submitted this year to accomplish a near-impossible task: narrow the list down to the 100 most exceptional examples of federal work.

It is an honor to hear their stories of dedication and vision, which you will get to glimpse yourselves via the profiles we will publish in the Nextgov/FCW magazine and on Nextgov.com, as well as in person at our Evening of Honors on April 3 to celebrate the Fed 100 winners and Government Hall of Fame inductees. 

For now, the list of names below represent some of the best and brightest our community has to offer. The titles and organizations listed reflect the roles these individuals held in 2024 when doing the work that earned this recognition — although some may have moved on to other positions or even retired.

Jay Alalasundaram
Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Software Applications and Services, Office of Information Technology
Customs and Border Protection

Billy Annibell
IT Program Manager, Postal Service Health Benefit Program
Office of Personnel Management 

Betsy Beaumon
Chief Transformation Officer
Social Security Administration

Chris Bedi
Chief Customer Officer
ServiceNow

Moira E. Bergin
Director, Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, Committee on Homeland Security
House of Representatives

Steve Blank
Adjunct Professor; Founder Hacking for Defense, Founder Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation
Stanford University, Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation

Alexis Bonnell
Chief Information Officer and Director of the Digital Capabilities Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory
Air Force

Abby Bowman
Web Modernization Lead and Chief, Web Services Office
NASA

Lucas Brown
Chief Innovation Officer, Office of Grants
Department of Health and Human Services

Melvin Brown II
Deputy Executive Director, Office of Human Capital Data Management & Modernization
Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Chief Information Officer

Caroline Bruckner
Managing Director, Kogod Tax Policy Center & Senior Professorial Lecturer, Accounting & Taxation
American University Kogod School of Business

Bill Burnham
CTO, U.S. Public Sector
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Juan C. Castillo
Chief, National Recruitment Office
Federal Bureau of Prisons

Merav Ceren
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Deputy Policy Director, National Security & Science
Senate

Matt Chong
Senior Vice President of Public Sector
Qualtrics

Jeff R. Claunch
Director of Enterprise Hosting Solutions
Department of Agriculture

Greg Clifton
General Manager, Federal Sales
Intel

Michael Coppola
Director of Client Success
Dcode

Luis A. Coronado, Jr.
Chief Information Officer, Bureau of Consular Affairs
Department of State

Robert J. Costello
Chief Information Officer, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Department of Homeland Security

Karin Dasuki
Director, Office of Finance and Accounting & HQ DFO
Department of Energy

Baibhav Devkota
Executive Director
Customs and Border Protection

Mark DeVol
Vice President of Federal Sales
Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions

Sarah E. Esty
Senior Advisor for Technology and Delivery
Department of Health and Human Services

Meredith Evans Wagner
Program Lead: Technology, Planning, and Integration for Observations
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Alice Fakir
Sr Partner & Vice President of IBM Cybersecurity Services Federal
IBM

Justin Fanelli
Acting Chief Technology Officer (and Technical Director PEO Digital)
Department of the Navy

Thomas "Pat" Flanders
Chief Information Officer (J-6)
Defense Health Agency

Boyd C. Fletcher
Director of Engineering, National Cross Domain Strategy and Management Office (NCDSMO), Cybersecurity Directorate
National Security Agency

Victor Foulk
Vice-President, Emerging Technologies
CGI Federal

Christopher Frommann
Senior Counselor to the Administrator for Technology, Strategy and Delivery
Federal Emergency Management Agency

John Garrett
VP, Department of Defense
Dell Technologies Federal

Josh Geiger
Director of Operations, National Emergency Medicine Office (NEMO)
Veterans Health Administration

J. Matt Gilkeson
Chief Technology, Data, and Artificial Intelligence Officer
Transportation Security Administration

Venice Goodwine
Chief Information Officer
Department of the Air Force

Arun Gupta
CEO
NobleReach Foundation

Colt Hagmaier
Assistant Administrator for Recovery
Federal Emergency Management Agency

David Hathaway
Defense Sector President
ManTech

Noreen Hecmanczuk
Senior Advisor to the Federal CIO
Office of Management and Budget

Jessie Hernandez
AI Innovation Leader
Capgemini Government Solutions

Laura Hill
NRE FS Assistant CIO
USDA Forest Service

Dr. Travis Hoppe
Former Assistant Director of Artificial Intelligence Research and Development
White House Office of Science Technology Policy

Matt House
Program Manager, Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Allison Hutchings
Senior Advisor for Technology Policy at TTS
General Services Administration

Colonel Nathan L. Iven
Acting Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Cyber and Data
Space Force

Deidre L. Jackson
Senior Vice President for Solution Engineering
Owl Cyber Defense

La'Naia Jones
Chief Information Officer
Central Intelligence Agency

Robert C. King
Chief Data Officer and Vice Chair, Federal CDO Council
Department of Energy

Bud Kinzer
Director, Public Sector Partner Sales
HashiCorp

Steve Krauss
Director, HR Quality Services Management Office
Office of Personnel Management

Stephen W. Kucharski
Acting Chief Information Officer, Director of Office of Performance and Systems Management
Small Business Administration

David Larrimore
Chief Technology Officer
Department of Homeland Security

Dave Levy
Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector
Amazon Web Services

Jim Lewis
Senior Vice President and Pritzker Chair
Center for Strategic and International Studies

Christina Liaghati
Department Manager, Trustworthy and Secure AI
MITRE

Candice Ling
SVP, U.S. Federal
Microsoft

Lynn Martin
Chief Growth Officer
Workday Government 

Bill McElhaney
Chief Information Officer
Citizenship and Immigration Services

Brigadier General Michael T. McGinley
Director, GigEagle and DOD Agile Talent Ecosystem; Mobilization Assistant to the Commander, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Air Force

Leah McGrath
Executive Director
StateRAMP

Dr. Sonya A. H. McMullen
Deputy Director for PNT, DOD CIO
Department of Defense

Beth Meagher
Principal, U.S. Federal Health Sector Leader
Deloitte Consulting LLP

Danielle Metz
Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Department of Defense

Dr. Celia Merzbacher
Executive Director
Quantum Economic Development Consortium

Felipe Millon
Federal Sales Lead
OpenAI

Chief Master Sergeant Kevin J. Miner
Senior Enlisted Leader, Cyberspace Capabilities Center
Air Force

Eric A. Munson
Manager, Enterprise Applications
Naval Reactors

Jay Nakashima
President
eHealth Exchange

Vu T. Nguyen
Chief Information Security Officer
Department of Justice

Ross Nodurft
Executive Director
Alliance for Digital Innovation

Giovanni U. Onwuchekwa
Chief Strategy Officer, FAS
General Services Administration

Yemi Oshinnaiye
Chief Information Officer
Transportation Security Administration

Shelu Patel
Director, Operational Technology
Customs and Border Protection

Udaya Patnaik
Chief Innovation Officer, Information Technology Category, FAS
General Services Administration

John M. Pekarik
Director, Digital Products, Office of Online Services
Internal Revenue Service

David A. Peters
Associate Chief Information Officer
Department of Agriculture

Jennifer Pahlka
Senior Fellow
Federation of American Scientists and Niskanen Center

James Pickard
Technology Advisor, HQ Cyberspace Capability Center
Air Force

Chad Poland
Service Manager, Secure Cloud Business Applications
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Angelica "Angie" Quirarte
Senior Advisor, Talent Strategy and Service Delivery
Office of Management and Budget

Ravi Raghava
Chief Technology Officer, Civilian Business Group
Science Applications International Corporation, Inc.

Colonel Steven Ready
Deputy Commander, Cyberspace Capabilities Center
Air Force

Adarryl Roberts
Chief Information Officer
Defense Logistics Agency

Bridget Roberts
Chief, Direct File
Internal Revenue Service

Bill Rowan
Vice President of Public Sector
Splunk, A Cisco Company

Cathleen A. Rush
Deputy Director, Office of ARSOF Autonomy
U.S. Army Special Operations Command

Charles A. Santangelo
Senior Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Advisor, DHS Liaison to the FASC
Department of Homeland Security

Michael Sarich
FOIA Director
Department of Veterans Affairs

Colonel Christina L. Sheets
DHMSM Program Manager, Chief Dental Informatics Officer
Defense Healthcare Management Systems

Paul J. Shute
Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for the Office of Automated Benefits Delivery
Department of Veterans Affairs

Heather N. Stier
Senior Advisor for Acquisitions & Vendor Relations, Information Technology Vendor Management Office, Federal Acquisition Service
General Services Administration

Stephanie L. Studds
Assistant Associate Director for Economic Programs
Census Bureau

Craig M. Thomas
Chief Information Officer
Merit Systems Protection Board

Donald Ulrich
Director, Trademark Product Delivery Division
Patent and Trademark Office

Karen L. Van Dyke
Director, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing & Spectrum Management
Department of Transportation 

Peter Warren
Senior Advisor, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
House of Representatives

Nick Weber
Acting Director, Office of Scientific Computing Services
National Institutes of Health

Kristen H. Wilson
Strategic Acquisition Data Management Lead
Office of Management and Budget

Solomon Wilson
Cyber Security Project Manager
Indian Health Service

James Wolff
Associate Administrator for Information Management and Chief Information Officer
National Nuclear Security Administration